Methods of detecting cancer cells and use of same for diagnosing and monitoring treatment of the disease

Abstract

A method of detecting cancer cells is disclosed. The method comprises (a) contacting the cell with a substrate for an enzyme under conditions wherein the enzyme catalyzes a reaction of the cell with said substrate, so as to generate a product capable of producing an electrical signal; and (b) measuring a level of the electrical signal, wherein a difference in a level of said electrical signal compared to a predetermined threshold is indicative of a cancer cell. The method may be adapted for diagnosis, monitoring a cancer therapy, identifying agents capable of treating cancer and individually optimizing a cancer therapy.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a Continuation-In-Part of PCT Patent Application No. PCT / IL2008 / 000457, filed on Apr. 2, 2008, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60 / 907,441, filed on Apr. 2, 2007. The contents of the above Applications are all incorporated herein by reference.FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to a method of detecting cancer and, more particularly, to methods of optimizing drug treatment for cancer.[0003]Cancer is responsible for the majority of morbidity and mortality worldwide, despite recent advances in medical technology. Current therapeutic strategies focus predominantly on achieving the removal or death of cancer cells within the patient, through a diverse array of surgical and non-surgical techniques; the most widely used are chemotherapy and gamma irradiation. Those methods have a number of prominent disadvantages, in particular the culling of healthy cells / tissues within th...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0140]In order to individualize cancer therapy, the influence of various single-source drugs on human colon cancer cells (HT-29), was examined.

[0142]HT-29 colon cancer cells were exposed for 96 hours to various differentiation therapy agents and the induced alkaline phosphatase activity was measured. Each electrochemical chamber on the array was loaded with cells exposed to a different agent—namely Butyric acid, butyroylmethyl-diethyl phosphate and pivaloyloxymethyl butyrate. The results are shown in FIG. 1A-C. Normal enzymatic activity denotes that the cells differentiate properly as a consequence of the particular drug treatment. As shown in FIGS. 1A-C, BA and butyroylmethyl-diethyl phosphate induced enzymatic activity of alkaline phosphatase, whilst pivaloyloxymethyl butyrate did not induce any enzyme activity at 50 μM concentration exposure, which may be related to its reduced potency regarding HT-29 cancer cells [M. Entin-Meer, et al., Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, vol. 4, pp. 1952-1961, 2005; D. Engel, et al., Clinical Cancer Research, vol. 11, pp. 9052S-9052S, 2005]. In addition, positive and negative controls were performed: Chambers were loaded with drug-treated cells, untreated cells as negative control and purified alkaline phosphatase as positive control. It is important to note that butyroylmethyl-diethyl phosphate exerted similar differentiation effect to the BA although its concentration was lower by 1.5 orders of magnitude, 50 μM Vs. 2.5 mM for butyroylmethyl-diethyl phosphate and BA, respectively.

Problems solved by technology

Those methods have a number of prominent disadvantages, in particular the culling of healthy cells / tissues within the patient, and the rather toxic side-effects of the current generation of chemotherapeutic drugs utilized in cancer treatment.

Differentiation therapy is based on the concept that cancer cells are normal cells that have been arrested at an immature or less differentiated state, lack the ability to control their own growth, and thus multiply at an abnormally fast rate.

Until presently, there is no detection system for such markers which meets all these demands.

U.S. Pat. Appl No. 20040053425 does not teach amperometric detection of intracellular markers.

However, until presently, amperometric detection has not been used for analyzing cellular enzymatic activities.

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